Animal Logic

The Lego Ninjago Movie Now In Cinemas In The United States

This Friday (22/09/2017) was the U.S. premiere of The Lego Ninjago Movie which is based on Cartoon Network’s Lego Ninjago: Masters Of Spinjitzu 3D CGI animated series and the Lego toy range of the same name. Ninjago is a city under constant threat by Lord Garmadon (voiced by Justin Theroux), who happens to be the father of a young ninja named Lloyd (played by Dave Franco) and the husband of Koko, Lloyd’s mom (voiced by Olivia Munn).

Lloyd is under emotional stress because the citizens of Ninjago hate him due to his connection to his evil father, but Lloyd is a force for good and is a secretly a ninja with his friends Kai (Michael Peña), Jay (Kumail Nanjiani), Nya (Abbi Jacobson), Cole (Fred Armisen) and Zane (Zach Woods). Lloyd and his ninja friends eventually confronts his father in an epic showdown. Famous martial artist and actor, Jackie Chan stars as Master Wu in the movie, the mentor and master of the six ninja.

The Lego Ninjago Movie is the third movie in “The Lego Movie” franchise, following The Lego Batman Movie which was released in cinemas in various countries between January and March this year. The movie is also produced by the same team and consists of Dan Lin, Roy Lee, Phil Lord and Chris Miller and is made by Warner Animation Group with Australian animation studio – Animal Logic.

A video game based on the movie made by TT Games has been released alongside the U.S. theatrical release and is now available to buy and download for PC, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Lego construction toy sets based on the movie are now available in toy stores. In the UK, The Lego Ninjago Movie will be released in cinemas on Friday 13th October.

Special Report Lego Ninjago Season 7 Hands Of Time UK Premiere

Yesterday (01/04/2017), was the UK premiere screening of the seventh season of Lego Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu at BAFTA Piccadilly in London. The first two episodes from season seven (also known as the Hands of Time story arc) were shown at the screening, followed by a Q&A session with Lego Ninjago’s creative director, Simon Lucas, presented by TV presenter Nigel Clarke.

Ninjago is the name of Lego’s successful range of ninja-themed toys of which the animated TV series is based on. Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu follows the adventures of six ninja: Kai, Cole, Jay, Zane, Lloyd and Nya. All six ninja are trained in the martial art of Spinjitzu, each having their own special element: Fire (Kai), Lightning (Jay), Ice (Zane), Earth (Cole), Energy (Lloyd) and Water (Nya).

Each season has different story arc (e.g: The Tournament of Elements, Possession and Skybound), season seven focuses on two new (technically old) villians, Acronix and Krux, the original Elemental Masters of Time. Krux has the ability go back in time and pause time, while his younger twin brother, Acronix can go forward in time and slow down time. Forty years ago, both Acronix and Krux were aware of their uniquely powerful abilities and decided to betray the Elemental Alliance and used their powers to control all of Ninjago. Special “Time Blades” had to be forged so Wu and Garmadon can battle the time twins, eventually the blades were used to absorb the twins’ time powers. As a result and knowing that the ability of controling time is very dangerous, both Master Wu and Master Garmadon decided to use the Time Blades to open a vortex, losing the time blades forever. However, both Acronix and Krux decide to go through the vortex themselves, which left the two lost in time, however Krux managed to teleport back to Ninjago and disguised himself for 40 years. In the first two episodes we see the ninja encounter and battle Acronix and the ninja learn more about him and his brother Krux. The Time Twins wish to revert Ninjago back to the past and undo history, will the ninja retrieve the Time Blades and stop them before it’s too late? In later episodes, we will also find out more about Kai and Nya’s backstory and their need to combine their fire and water elements.

After the screening of the first two episodes, there was a Q&A session combined with an on-screen presentation, this was an opportunity for the audience to ask questions about Ninjago. During the presentation, Simon Lucas talked about the concept art from the new season as well as the original prototype drawing from 2009 of which the whole show and toy range was based on. Simon also brought along some of the Lego models which were specially developed for the show for everyone at the screening to take a look at.

Ninjago In Development Concept Art From 2009Lego sets as featured on the show including Dawn of Iron Doom and the Samurai VXL vehicle.

Simon Lucas is based at Lego’s world headquarters in Billund, Denmark where he oversees the Ninjago toy range and the upcoming Ninjago movie coming to cinemas worldwide later this year, he also liaises with the animation studio Wil Film who animates the TV show. Some interesting facts about Lego were mentioned during the Q&A session including the different types of Lego bricks and the type of people who work at Lego, Lego employs model designers, architects and devoted Lego fans and there is to be believed to be a total of 100,000 unique Lego bricks (including every colour and variant). For Lego Ninjago, there are ten set designers and ten model designers, not everything is built in Lego beforehand for the TV series or released as official Lego sets but it’s very possible to recreate near enough everything, however for the upcoming movie, everything was built with Lego. The movie will focus on Lloyd and his evil father, Lord Garmadon, there will also be an epic showdown of ninja action. The movie is made by Cartoon Network’s sister company, Warner Bros. with animation made by Animal Logic, the same studio that animated The Lego Movie.

Season eight of Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu is currently in development and The Lego Ninjago Movie will be released in cinemas across the UK in October.

Trailer for The Lego Ninjago Movie:

Ninjago: Masters of Spinjitzu season seven premieres on Cartoon Network UK tomorrow (03/04/2017) with new episodes airing weekdays at 4pm.

The Lego Batman Movie Cast And Crew Live Chat 22nd January

Tomorrow (22/01/2017), Lego will be hosting a live chat and Q&A session with the cast & crew of the upcoming Lego Batman Movie. The session will feature Lego Batman’s voice actor – Will Arnett, as well as director Chris McKay and movie producers Dan Lin, Christopher Miller and Phil Lord. The Lego Batman Movie is produced by Cartoon Network’s sister company – Warner Bros. and is animated by Australian animation studio – Animal Logic. The movie will be released in cinemas in Denmark (Lego’s homeland) on Thursday 9th February, followed by the United States the next day on Friday 10th February.

The live event will be streamed on YouTube at 7.30pm GMT/2.30pm ET/11.30am PT tomorrow, people are able to ask questions on the event’s page on Facebook.